Play was released by Moby in 1999. It uses a variety of samples from old blues and gospel recordings. Some of the samples contain background noise and are quite ‘grainy’ or ‘lo-fi’. Moby uses this as a creative effect. Play was both a critical success and a commercial phenomenon. The album introduced Moby to a worldwide mainstream audience, not only through a large number of hit singles that helped the album to dominate worldwide charts for two years, but also through unprecedented licensing of his music in films, television, and commercial advertisements. It eventually became the biggest-selling electronica album of all-time, with over 12 million copies sold worldwide. The video below shows some of the samples that were used in the album, both in their original and new contexts.

What is Sampling?

On a basic level, sampling is when you take a part of a song, single note or sound and reuse it in another context. It is common to use a sampler to either record, manipulate or playback one of these pieces of audio material (or any combination of the three).

You can also sample single notes or hits. These can be used to form a sampler instrument, which can recreate the sound of a real instrument very accurately, or create a brand new instrument from a sample.

Originally in the 1960s, samplers used tape loops. To change the pitch on a tape-based recording, the tape was played faster or slower. However, unfortunately, tapes were subject to hiss, wow and flutter, and degradation. The Mellotron was a tape-based sampler with loops attached to each key used by The Beatles. In the video below, Paul McCartney demonstrates the Mellotron that was famously used in Strawberry Fields Forever.

Sampling was later extensively used in hip hop (1970s and 1980s) using turntables Drum machines used early sampling technology because the samples required were short and did not require pitch shifting. Modern day samplers are digital, and often triggered using MIDI as part of a DAW.

In modern day samplers, it is noticeable when a sound is pitch shifted beyond a few tones (when this is done in relation to a keyboard, we call it ‘keyboard tracking’). Multisampling is used to overcome this, ensuring samples are only used over a limited range. Velocity layering is used to change the sample depending on how hard the key is played It is important to ensure samples are edited at a zero-crossing point to avoid a click or a glitch; another solution is to use crossfade looping.

Sample Manipulations

Loop

Repeats the sample

Normalise

Increases the volume to the maximum without distorting

Stuttering

Repeating small parts of the sample

Gapping

Adding spaces between small parts of the sample

Time Stretch

Extending or reducing the time of the sample independently from its pitch

Pitch Shift

Changing the pitch of a sample independently from its length

Reverse

Playing the audio data of sample backwards

Phase Invert

Flips the waveform so peaks become troughs and vice versa

Sample Rate and Bit Depth

Analogue to digital conversion and recording also involves sampling. As part of this process, we take amplitude measurements of a waveform, and assign each measurement a number or value.

The bit depth gives us the accuracy of the amplitude measurements taken.

The sample rate is the number of amplitude measurements taken per second. It is measured in hertz.

When an analogue signal is sampled, we end up with a stream of numbers which make up the digital signal This is usually measured in binary code (0 & 1). A common bit depth for high quality sampling and CD audio is 16 bit. This means that there are 216 possible amplitude measurements (65,536).

A common sample rate for high quality sampling and CD audio is 44,100Hz This caters to Nyquist’s Theorem, which states that the sample rate is twice the highest frequency captured. Since the human hearing range is between 20Hz and 20,000Hz, this means that high quality sampled audio and CD audio is able to capture all frequencies we can hear with a bit to spare.

The Edge from U2 famously uses lots of effects to create his famous guitar sound. Watch him talk about how sometimes the effects he uses contributes to his sound in the video below.

One of the most commonly asked questions when starting to study Music Technology is about how you can identify effects and processing in your listening. A knowledge of effects and processing also helps you at Music GCSE, particularly in study of popular songs.

All of the audio samples below play the clean version of the synth riff, followed by the effect.

Dynamics Processing

Compression – reduces the dynamic range of audio, creating a more consistent volume level. Often used to help a part such as a lead vocal, cut through the mix. Sidechain compression is often used creatively in dance music to make synths duck in time with the kick drum.

In the audio sample below, the synth is controlled by a compressor with a sidechain linked to a four to the floor kick drum.

Noise Gate – removes or silences quiet sounds below a threshold. Often used to remove noise or quieter sounds between musical phrases, or to remove hiss/hum from a distorted electric guitar between phrases, so the gate opens when the guitarist starts to play.

Key Effects

Delay – creates a repeat of the sound. The feedback alters the number of repeats, and the delay time changes how long between each one. It is possible to synchronise delays so they play in time with the music. The picture below shows a plugin recreation of the Roland Space Echo Tape Delay.

Reverb – simulates the sound and ambience of being in a room. Can be excessively used to give the sense of being in a very large space. If there is no reverb, we can say that a sound is very dry. In the 1980s, gated reverb was commonly used, which used a dense reverb along with a noise gate to cut off part of the reverb tail, giving greater clarity to the mix.

Modulation FX

Modulation effects all depend on changing a parameter of a sound over time; for example, combining a signal and a delayed version, or changing the pitch according to another wave. We can use a LFO (low frequency oscillator) to do this. An easy way of identifying modulation effects is listening for a ‘wobble’ of something – does something change over time to create a sense of movement?

Chorus

A chorus effect combines a wet and dry signal (with and without effect). The wet signal is slightly delayed and detuned, which creates a ‘shimmering’ effect that simulates multiple instruments or doubling, like in a choir or ensemble. Chorus is commonly used on guitars.

A phaser combines a dry signal with a wet signal on which an all pass filter has modulated the phase according to the incoming frequency. This means that phase cancellation takes place, altering the frequency content of the wet signal.

Vibrato is when the pitch of a sound is modulated. It is similar to the effect musicians use when playing a woodwind, stringed or brass instrument, or when singers sustain a long note. The vibrato effect in the audio sample below was created using a Rotary speaker emulator.

It is common in dance music for producers to automate the cut off frequency and add some resonance to create a moving filter effect. The audio sample below has an automated cut off frequency that slowly removes a low pass filter. The filter is slightly resonant (it sounds whistly as it moves). The graph below shows a resonant low passfilter.

Many digital distortion plugins hard clip the sound as in the diagram above. Guitarists sometimes prefer the sound of valve amps, which don’t clip the wave as harshly; we call this soft clipping, and it is often described as a ‘warmer’ sound.

Another form of distortion that occurs when using lower bit depths and sample rates is bit distortion. This is audible on old samplers and can be applied to synths and other instruments to create a ‘lo-fi’ sound.

Wah wah is an onomatopoeic effect that changes the frequency content of a guitar. It is essentially a band pass filter with a moving centre frequency or a resonant low pass filter with a moving cut off frequency. It sounds like it is said!